Pakistan breaks India's record as Shahbaz Sharif also sings the anthem at the event. PHOTO: ONLINE

LAHORE: As many as 44,200 Pakistanis sang the national anthem together at the National Hockey Stadium, Lahore on Saturday to set a new world record, breaking India’s record.

The event was organised as part of the ongoing youth festival in the province.

Guinness World Record (GWR) officials present at the stadium, presented a certificate confirming that 44,200 people had successfully managed to set a new world record.

The Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif also arrived to partake and witness the event.

The participants arrived at the stadium earlier during the day and practiced the national anthem for hours. It was earlier reported that 70,000 people had sung the anthem, however the official score put the figure at 44,200.

Guinness World Records adjudicator Gareth Deaves said that he was impressed with the enthusiasm shown by the youth of Punjab and he was amazed to see a big gathering at the National Hockey Stadium.

“It is a very important day for the people of Pakistan, specially Punjab as a big audience has gathered here to create new records in many events including singing of national anthem and creation of Pakistan flag by the audience present in the arena ,” he told the media.

Gareth said that the GWR team was very impressed to see the enthusiasm of the people of Pakistan and he was glad to see the interest of people attempting to create new records for GWR.

Earlier in August, an attempt was made to set a new world record in Karachi when thousands of students gathered on University Road to sing the national anthem.

A similar event was staged in Karachi last year when as many as 5,857 people gathered at the Khadda Market ground to make a new record. While the numbers were enough to break the then record of 5,248 people singing the anthem simultaneously, no Guinness officials were present at the event, meaning it was never chalked up as an official record attempt.

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Reader Comments (79)

Are you sure there were 70,000 People ? as far as I know National Hockey Stadium has a total capacity of 45,000 then add a couple of thousand people standing in the playing area .. can’t be more than 50,000 in total .. where do you fit 70,000 then?

Did 70,000 students ever gather for something that really matters? Singing the national anthem is great but this is not going to solve any problem. Such things look good in places where there are no other issues.

These students should also think about getting together to condemn terrorism.

Congratulations to Pakistan for breaking the Indian record. Imran Khan in order to make amends to his statements should make another attempt to go to North Waziristan with his supporters and sing Pakistan National Anthem along with Talebans.Recommend

They also chanted religious slogans “Ya Allah” “Ya Rasool Allah (Salalaho-Alaehe-Wasallam), that appears not being included in your report, how strange! Nevertheless, good effort this was by my fellow brethren and sisters.

Has Punjab ever gathered for the cause of innocent people being targeted on daily basis in the city of Quetta? Singing national anthem will not heal the pain of hundreds of families whose loved ones are kidnaped and killed in Baluchistan.

I think that rather than being cynical, it is something we should appreciate…even if it is just a symbol of patriotism. In time, we will find ways to channel this energy and passion in other constructive ways as well.

No matter how many people are singing the national anthem in the leadership of Shahbaz shareef. But, it is much better to sing “Nach Punjaban” with Ibrarul Haq and Imran Khan. Islamic Republic of Pakistan…ZindabadRecommend

Those who are saying that singing the national anthem wont solve anything, please note that the anthem is meant to instill the love of your country in your heart. I’m sure everyone who participated feels differently about Pakistan. I’m a thousand miles away and feel disconnected from the country because of the happenings, yet I felt moved when I saw the news. I felt my love being revived, and thats saying alot since I’m an Ahmedi.

70,000 guys singing national anthem to show their passion towards our love Pakistan, and you think thats fun? If thats not big achievement, what bigger you have done for this country? We are getting overly sarcastic in our political bias, God bless us.

My dear Pakistani friends, creating of a world record on National Anthem is not good enough until nationalism is truly practiced by all its citizens ie treating one and all living in Pakistan with respect and equality, irrespective of one’s religion and faith.

Year 2025: Pakistan and India have stopped warring and playing see saw with Guinness book record. Every year population of these countries is displaying childish behavior by singing their respective national anthem. In the past danger to country or religion has been used to unite population. These countries are uniting there population by claiming that their Guinness book record is in danger.

Actually we overtook Hindustan a long time ago when we started feeding our poor and building public toilets – something that hasn’t reached you guys yet.

Awesome gesture from the youth of Pakistan – true, this won’t solve any of the material issues plaguing the country, but it’s actually very significant to see that Pakistanis are determined to unite behind these nationalist statements. Nothing is more infuriating to the enemies of the state.

After stuffing of 70+ karachi girl students in the smart car, this the another milestone achieved by the youth of pakistan, especially karachi. I can bet most of these people will be voting for PTI. World should take a notice that youth of pakistan can achieve any useless milestone.

a sheer wastage of time. what they wanted to prove?? There isn’t a single word of our national language in this anthem. we take pride in reflected glory… dust off this hypocrisy and be an original nation Pakistaniooooo…..Recommend

What a waste of money. It was sad to see people celebrating a non-competitive event as if they have won a world cup. With Pakistan slipping further and further down in international competitive sports, stunts like this are no replacement for true competitiveness and professionalism. Can somebody calculate the cost of pulling this one, and find out how we would have been much better off in spending this money on training and infrastructure of youth sport in poor areas.

@Hasan .. Wow !! Congrats on the toilets and feeding poor. I wonder why after making so much of progress , world calls pakistan a failed state?. Pakistan has no poor , 100%literates, booming economy , leading tech companies etc etc. But you dont care live in your dreamland!!.

After a long time, something positive to Pakistan’s credit finally. Some people say we don’t get anything from singing anthems. The point is not this; it is that up to 44,000 people congregated for something they believed in. Saw it live and believe me, the feeling was surreal. I pray that our nation again sees happiness, prosperity and better days. Not a fan of Khadim-e-Aala but this can be attributed to him.

I hate to rain on anyone’s parade, but I have to question this record. It is customary in the US to sing the national anthem before sports events. The Michigan University stadium seats 109,901, and its record attendance was 114,804. The Rose Bowl in Pasadena, CA, has over 100,000 for each New Year’s Game. Here is video of the Michigan Band playing the national anthem with a view of the 100,000+ attending the 2005 Rose Bowl game, all presumably singing. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTPiVKgGmP8&feature=endscreen

@Ali: I agree with you 100%.
@PaKhtoon: Pakistan Zindabad!
@Nitro: Our neighbourig country on the eastern border.
@Ducky: Thank you for the kind words.
@Khan: PLease read the line “It was earlier reported that 70,000 people had sung the anthem, however the official score put the figure at 44,200.”.
Regards.

@Hamid Hassan Khan: Yes it seems love for Pakistan is only in Punjab and it could be worthwhile when the students from all the provinces would participate and particularly people from Balochistan! and it is nothing but publicity stunt from PML (N) when they are not be able to deliver to their nation they want them to cheer up for something which is not going to change the reality of Pakistan which is a mess at this moment!

Every year Hindustan loses over 500,000 female babies through gender selection technology – that’s around 10 times more deaths than our TOTAL losses through terrorism over the past decade. So posting idiotic messages about bullets under a fake western name doesn’t really change how backward your country is…the only thing you have is strength of numbers, and this world record shows even that is unimportant.

If each and every Pakistani who attended this gathering can come away from it with even the tiniest sense of national duty, then this record is certainly something worth celebrating…as always, I pray for our nation.

I know singing the national anthem isn’t something that constructive. And it is very easy to criticize the whole event.

But given all the violence, pessimism and overall turmoil that our country has been facing, I think this initiative showed another side of Pakistan. It shows that there are people in the country who are capable of peacefully and harmoniously pulling off something they have their eyes on.

Just to make the record straight , the record attempt for most people singing national anthem on 14th August 2011 was made official by guinness on 11th October 2011

Guinness works in 2 ways. Either invited their judges to the event, which involved big fees, hotel and travel expenses and they can judge right there and award the certificate
or else, make all data available to them like photos, videos, news clipps and video clips and send it to their head quarter in the uk. This is free and it takes around 8 weeks for them to finalized and confirm the record.

So the organizers sent the evidences to them and it was then finalized by 11th October 2011.
More details can be seen on the facebook page.